UPLAND GAME BIRDS 1353 
as food in his own throat. Both adults feed their young 
by regurgitation for twenty days, and undoubtedly give 
them water in the same way until they learn to drink, in 
true pigeon fashion, by suction. The newly hatched 
Mourning Doves are unique among young birds, for they 
are daintily formed miniature goslings SSc.e\ 
with goose bill and all. This bill ends 
in a pearly tip, and the young doves / 
are covered with short, cottony, 
white down, through which  ~ 
the yellow skin is ap- 
parent. The | 
motherbirdsare = / + 
both shy and oy: ss Sey 
stupid, for 
they will in- 
or" 
variably betray their nest by 
4 coe 316. Mourninc Dove. 
flying off w hen, if they re- ‘* A platform of sticks.” 
mained quiet, it might not be 
noticed. I know of no birds who desert their eggs 
and young so readily. The mother bird is also a slack 
housekeeper, and so loosely is the nest built that the 
egos may nearly always be seen from below. In two 
instances Mr. P. W. Smith, of Greenville, Illinois, found 
these birds occupying old robins’ nests, and once he 
discovered two of their eggs in the home of a thrasher, 
which also contained one thrasher egg. 
In spite of these well-authenticated instances, and the 
fact that I have found Mourning Doves brooding their 
young in a kingbird’s old nest thickly lined with sheep's 
